Convertible truck



1949 w. J. BENNER CONVERTIBLE TRUCK Filed Aug. 20, 1945 Patented Dec. 13, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to improvements in mobile fork lift vehicles of the type described in U. S. Letters Patent No. 2,264,512, issued December 2, 1941, to E. J. Dunham.

Devices described in the above mentioned patent are usually employed for removing large boxes from trucks, and transporting such boxes conveniently from one place to another. However, there are numerous occasions when such devices cannot be used, such as removing boxes from a basement freight box car, truck, or to perform the functions of a crane.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an attachment to the forks of a mobile fork lift vehicle, which attachment carries a pulley over which cable passes to a winch, thus enabling the vehicle to perform the functions of a crane.

This and other objects are attained by the novel structure and arrangement hereinafter described and illustrated by the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the attachment.

Fig. 2 is a view showing a mobile lift vehicle in operation with the attachment.

Fig. 3 shows an application of the device for lifting articles from a cellar below the floor supporting the mobile lift vehicle.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1 is shown the attachment which comprises a pair of sockets 3, rotatably supportin a shaft 5 upon which is mounted a pulley 6. The sockets are adapted to receive the forks 2, and are clamped thereto by spring bolts 4.

The forks 2 are members of a mobile fork lift vehicle which has uprights I. In accordance with the invention a pulley I0 is mounted on the uprights I and over pulley l0 and pulley 6 passes a cable 9 which extends beneath the body of the vehicle to a winch ll mounted on the rear of the vehicle.

The winch (either built in chassis or attached to outside) is rotated by means of the motor of the vehicle by mechanism not shown and not forming a part of this invention. The means for rotating the winch may be some well known gear system.

In Fig. 3 is shown an application of the attachment for lifting boxes, crates, and other articles from a cellar below the floor supporting the motor lift vehicle. As shown in Fig. 3, the cable 9 has an extension 1 provided with grapples 8 which engage the article to be lifted.

It will be seen that the attachment provides means for handling articles not heretofore possible with the motor lift vehicle shown by the patent mentioned above. Also, the attachment enables the handling of crates, boxes, and other articles from trucks without the necessity of pallets as heretofore has been required.

The attachment is simple in structure and obviously requires no alteration of the standard mobile lift vehicle, thus saving considerable time in converting the usual mobile lift vehicle to a crane. All that is necessary is to slip the attachment over the forks.

From the above description it will be seen that there has been provided a simple and effective device for increasing the efficiency of motor lift vehicles, savin considerable time, and enabling operations not heretofore possible with the standard motor lift vehicle.

The invention having been described, what is claimed is:

1. A convertible fork lift truck convertible at will to a traveling crane hoist, comprising in combination, a mobile fork lift having a wheeled truck, an elevatable load lifting fork device vertically movable on the truck and having forwardly projecting platform-like arms to engage under a load to be lifted, a motor on the truck, a winch on the truck operable by the motor, and converting means comprising two socket members having the tips of respective said arms removably inserted therein, a pulley revolubly mounted on said socket members, and a cable from said winch extending over said pulley.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said truck has an elevated guide frame for the said fork, and means to guide the cable from the winch and over the top of said elevated guide to said pulley at all elevations of the pulley with said fork device throughout the normal movement of the fork device on said elevated guide frame.

WILLIAM J'. BENNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,590,496 Carr June 29, 1926 1,837,486 Remde Dec. 22, 1931 2,364,493 Ulinski Dec. 5, 1944 2,387,568 Drott et a1 Oct. 23, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 268,630 Great Britain Apr. 7, 1927 

